STADLER opens new Test and Innovation Center in Slovenia focused on plastic sorting and recycling

12 January 2021

STADLER announced the opening of its new Test and Innovation Center at its production site in Krsko, Slovenia.

The new facility will play a dual role as a test center for customer demonstrations and training, and as an innovation center housing STADLER’s Research and Development activities focused on the plastic sorting process. Ideally located within easy reach of two major airports - 60 km from Zagreb 125 km from Ljiubljana – and close to the A2 motorway, it is very accessible to visitors from across the world.

At the new Test and Innovation Center, STADLER will offer demonstrations of the sorting process – feeding, label removal, ballistic separation, metal separation, non-ferrous metal separation, near-infrared separation with the latest generation NIR technology, and transport with conveyors and screw conveyors. This will help customers make an informed purchase decision, as they will be able to see first-hand the sorting process in the plant designed for them by STADLER. The center will also provide training for customers, as well as its internal staff.

The new facility is also home to STADLER’s Testing activities for plastic recycling applications, with input material being sorted into polymer products such as PET, HDPE and PP bottles, or LDPE films, and recycled. “This activity is very important for us at STADLER,” explains Tom Schmitt, Sales Manager at STADLER. “We are constantly striving to offer increasingly efficient processes in the recycling of polymers.”

The new Center is also an important research and innovation hub for STADLER: “Here, in Slovenia, we will develop the plastic recycling plant of the next generation,” states Willi Stadler, CEO of Stadler Anlagenbau GmbH. “We have highly skilled people, with advanced knowledge of the entire process and specialized expertise. The majority of the engineers who assemble our systems around the world are based here.”

In this first phase, the Test and Innovation Center is housed in an existing hall on STADLER’s Krsko site, which has been extended with a temporary structure, providing a total covered area of 1.200 m² to accommodate the equipment for demonstrating the sorting process. The facility will be further developed in a modular way, to extend its testing and demonstration capabilities. It is staffed with a team of 5 people and supported by the STADLER engineers based on site.

The Krsko site is a manufacturing and engineering hub that plays a key role in STADLER’s operation. It houses the production of the company’s steel structures, screening drums, heavy chain conveyor belts and label removers, as well as its sheet metal processing plant. In addition, it is the home of STADLER’s Electrical Engineering Department, which implements the electric installation and operating software in the company’s projects across the world.